First up, Trump’s recent comments and actions to sabotage American health care are, as I argue, in violation of his sworn oath to “protect and defend the Constitution”, which includes the Article 2 requirement that the President must “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

Instead of faithfully executing the law, Trump is undermining it, and putting millions of Americans at risk of losing access to affordable health care, as provided by the Affordable Care Act. In addition to his unforgivable lies about ObamaCare on Monday, thanks to his announcement late last week that he will stop payments to help cover out-of-pocket expenses such as deductibles and co-pays for low-income citizens (as mandated by the ACA), insurance premiums have now sky-rocketed in a number of states, including in Pennsylvania, which, its insurance Commissioner announced on Monday, will see average increases of more than 30%. (Similar increases are also slated for Florida, Arkansas, Oregon, Alaska and dozens of other states, thanks to Trump and the GOP’s attempt to gut the Obama-era law that has helped some 30 million obtain and pay for health care, while improving health care insurance plans for hundreds of millions of Americans.)

Repeat – Article 2 section 3 of the Constitution of the United States states that:

“he {the president} “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”

Note what it doesn’t say. It doesn’t say “execute the laws he agrees with” nor does it say “he may choose not to execute laws as he sees fit” nor does it say “the president may actively work to undermine laws he doesn’t like.” Doesn’t say anything like that. Nope – it is pretty clear even to the dullest of wits. The constitution states once more that ‘”he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”

Doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room there. Yet some 10 days ago or so, the current president declared that “Obamacare is dead.”

Trump explicitly states that he has cut off the CSRs – therefore stating loudly that he is refusing to enforce the law as it is written. Not much question.

Now the question is whether the congress will use their constitutional authority to check a president who has simply decided that he will choose which laws it will enforce and which laws it will not only refuse to enforce but will actively seek to destroy. The constitution was put together with checks and balances. Remember that concept from 7th grade Civics?

Checks and balances means that each of the 3 co-equal branches of our government holds a check on the other two such that if any one of the branches tries to exercise power outside of their constitutional authority then one or both of the other two branches have an authority that can be used to bring that branch back to a balance. In this case congress has the power of impeachment against a president who is clearly acting outside of his authority.

The president does not have power to choose which laws he will enforce. If he did then why would we even need congress? If the president could choose the laws he would enforce, it would be only a small step to grabbing the power to decide what should become law. Then we have crossed the line from a democracy to a dictatorship.

The judiciary may yet decide that the current president does not have power to withhold the CSR payments, but it has no power to enforce its ruling. Should the judiciary so decide and the current president refuse to accept their decision we would be in a constitutional crisis of epic proportion.

With the current president simply refusing to faithfully execute laws passed by congress, it is well time for the congress to exercise its constitutional authority to bring the government back into balance through the impeachment power.

Do republicans in congress have the courage to stand up and enforce the constitution? I doubt it.

Remember this next year when you vote after millions have lost their access to health care and your own health premiums have skyrocketed due to Republicans failure to stand up for you and the constitution.

Weekly Action Item

Stop Stolen SCOTUS. Go to Progress Iowa, to sign a petition for the U.S. Senate to delay hearings on the replacement of Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court until investigation of the president for collusion with a foreign government is complete.